Rohit Sharma equalled the world record for T20 centuries with his ton against England.
Photograph: Mark Kerton/PA

Rohit Sharma, purring through the gears in conditions that have the best batsmen salivating, guided India to an emphatic seven-wicket win to ensure the tourists victory in this T20 series.

Sharma even outshone Virat Kohli, who, in between some delicious strokeplay of his own, was happy to be a spectator for much of the time at the other end. On a postage stamp of a pitch England’s bowlers were ruthlessly shredded. The fans in the stands needed helmets as well as sunhats.

India knocked off the runs with eight balls to spare. England had a tiny glimmer of hope after two fine catches disposed of Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul. Jake Ball dived to his left at short fine leg in the manner of the great Jordan Pickford in Russia – except that he decided to take the ball in two hands – while Chris Jordan’s catch sprinting back from mid-on to dismiss Rahul was astounding. Both these Englishmen looked as if they were enjoying fielding rather more than bowling on another sun-kissed afternoon.

Sharma mixed power with delicacy when playing the decisive innings of the day, which was his third international T20 century. There were wonderfully deft glides past the outstretched arms of the keeper as well as the familiar drives and clips over the nearby boundary – he hit five sixes.

Kohli kept Sharma company in an 89-run partnership before becoming a victim to a superb catch by the bowler. He drilled the ball back at great velocity and Jordan (of course) somehow wrapped his hands around it. However another little moment of Jordan magic did not delay India’s romp to victory. Hardik Pandya merrily joined in the fun to allow India to complete a stress-free Sunday afternoon stroll.

Eoin Morgan acknowledged afterwards that England did not have enough runs on the board. “We had a great platform but we didn’t do it justice. Normally that is one of the best parts of our game”. Then he uttered the words that flow from just about every losing captain: “In the end we were about 20 to 30 runs short”.

England’s innings began rapidly but never accelerated: 198 was once a formidable total but here it never felt better than par. Bristol used to have one of the biggest playing surfaces on the county circuit but it has shrunk alarmingly with the advent of so many temporary stands. This is bad news for spinners; Moeen Ali was scarcely considered for England, while Kuldeep Yadav, England’s tormentor at Old Trafford, was more surprisingly omitted by India. These short boundaries do not enhance the game if they result in the omission of enchanting spin bowlers despite the yearning for an avalanche of sixes to keep the punters happy. Yesterday a couple of sliced drives cleared the boundary at third man to compound the injustice to bowlers.

England’s openers added 94 together in 7.4 overs. Even so it remains debatable whether this is the best combination at the top in this format. In their team they have plenty of batsmen who are capable of opening but some of them are less adept – and less accustomed – at batting at the tailend of the innings.

Jos Buttler hit five of his first seven balls to the boundary and then Jason Roy took over. He hit seven sixes, which equalled the record among Englishmen in this format, putting himself alongside Morgan and Ravi Bopara. Most of them were drilled towards the sightscreen or beyond. Roy managed to overshadow Buttler, who seemed to have mislaid his powers of timing when he swung at Siddarth Kaul and missed.

Roy raced to 67 inside 10 overs before being caught behind by MS Dhoni trying to guide the ball down to third man. This one of five catches for the veteran keeper, who also executed a dead-eyed run-out from the last ball of the innings. His most spectacular catch dismissed Morgan. England’s captain, having just been dropped off a skier by Yuzvendra Chahal, hit the next ball even higher into the air. Dhoni took charge and kept his eye on the ball, which meant that he did not see the stumps as he circled. So Dhoni crashed through the stumps, but he did catch the ball.

This terminated the scratchiest of innings from Morgan. Initially Alex Hales was not much more fluent, while Jonny Bairstow, who is in sparkling form, prowled around in the dugout. Morgan has talked of flexibility in the lineup - and here he had taken the unusual step of omitting Joe Root from the XI. Afterwards Morgan said that Root will definitely return to the side for the ODIs, which begin on Thursday.